Here in the PCM High School, one of the bathrooms has been closed due to vandalism; the person who committed these acts of vandalism hasn’t been caught yet.
PCM High School principal, Kristen Souza was asked first to explain what was happening in the bathrooms stating, “The bathrooms are being closed in response to lots of vandalism.” Souza continued, “When something happens in a bathroom, and if it happens more than once, I typically close it until I feel like it is able to be opened again.” Next, we asked Souza if there was any extra precautions she had to take to close the bathrooms, she responded with “ Just making sure people have access to a bathroom if they need it” she continued “ we are just kind of curving the amount of people we can have in th the restrooms to help monitor them”
Dylan Heacock an English teacher at PCM High School said that his reaction to the bathrooms being closed was thinking that it was the right decision and he understood why it was being closed due to the vandalism going on in the school. He followed up with “Yes, we have people vandalizing bathrooms. No, you shouldn’t get access to the bathrooms if you’re vandalizing them, but also it’s a student-body problem if you allow other people to vandalize the bathrooms or not report it right after you see it. That is also an equal problem and that has been a problem for a while.”
Brandy Tate, a teacher at PCM High School states her first reaction was disappointment. “ It just really makes me sad. PCM is like my second home.” Tate agrees with the closing and understands. She adds, “Students need to realize that their choices will affect people.” Tates overall feeling is sadness.
Junior Ryan Braun, a student at PCM High School says his first reaction to the closing was not caring. He states he knew legally they had to have other bathrooms open. He doesn’t quite agree with the closing. He says that there are always other bathrooms to be closed. Braun states his strong opinion on having the janitors cleaning up the vandalism, “It’s definitely not fair to the janitors, they don’t get paid to deal with people vandalizing the bathrooms.”
Junior MaKenna Van Haaften’s first reaction to the closing was shock. She understood why the consequence happened but didn’t agree with it all the way. She also thinks they’re not enough bathrooms in the school, “You always have to wait to go to any bathroom in this school, it’s becoming nonsense.”
We emailed Pella Christian administrator Kevin Herdegen to see what their school would do about vandalism. Herdegen responded with, “At Pella Christian High School we have not had to address closing bathrooms as a result of vandalism. In general, if we determine that students are damaging areas of our school and/or school property, we address those that are involved and take whatever steps are needed to reduce the chance of it continuing.” Herdegen continued, “This may mean restricting students from certain areas of our school if proper supervision cannot be given and/or providing additional supervision at specific times or places.”
The overall opinion with the closing was mixed. Most of the teachers were understanding while the students had mixed responses. While Pella Christian did not agree. Continuing through this interview we see Souzas side, how she made the decision and carried it out. Souza makes a good point. In Conclusion, we want to say a big thank you to our custodians and anyone who has had to deal with the vandalism, they work so hard to keep our school clean.
